Imam Khomeini on the ethics of war

Among the three main traditions of ethics of war, just war theory is the most flourishing and developed one. The aim of this paper is reconstruction of ethics of war inherent in the works of Imam Khomeini. Then after reviewing the main traditions, and based on comprehensive reading of his work and speeches, it will be argued that the ethics of war implicated by or articulated in the writings and sayings of late Imam Khomeini is more compatible with the tradition of just war; especially in the fields of jus ad bellum (just cause, proper authority, right intention, last resort), jus in bello(discrimination between combatants and non-combatants) and jus post bellum(observing human rights, terminating occupation, establishing a popular government and prosecution of perpetrators of war crimes).But virtue- intention- and duty-based ethics of Imam Khomeini –against the consequentialist approach of thinkers of just war theory-makes his ethical model different. Some rules of just war theory, such as proportionality (anticipating the gains and losses of war, dual effects of war and the possibility of success) are unacceptable from his point of view. Nevertheless even the parallelisms and similarities in the rules and general statements don't indicate the sameness or even similarity of contents or foundations in these two models. At least some of similarities are due to the common sources of Imam Khomeini and the just war theory.